The present invention relates to a protective device and control board having a plurality of functions for protecting, monitoring, and controlling a refrigeration or freezer machine.
The present invention is a control board for an ice machine, refrigerator or other refrigeration machinery having a protective circuitry that continuously monitors a supply voltage for both over voltage and under voltage conditions. The protective circuitry comprises a delay that prevents it from disconnecting the refrigeration machinery from the supply voltage during startup or detected temporary abnormalities. The protective circuitry also comprises at least one low and high temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a door position sensor, a dirty filter sensor, a thermistor sensor, a defrost sensor, a communication error sensor and a pump down error sensor which may provide a shutdown signal to turn the protected refrigeration machinery off. The protective circuitry further comprises a diagnostic menu which facilitates service personnel during troubleshooting operations by providing a history of detected irregularities in the refrigeration machine operation.
An object of the invention is to monitor and protect motor circuitry and other electronic components in a refrigeration machine from harmful environmental conditions such as over voltage, under voltage, high temperature, and high pressure conditions.
A further object of the invention is to provide a control board that continuously monitors various environmental conditions, shuts down a protected refrigeration machine after a dangerous condition exists for a predetermined period of time and/or a predetermined number of occurrences and stores information concerning the dangerous condition such as number of occurrences, date and time of occurrences or other information necessary for service technicians to troubleshoot and repair a faulty condition.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a control board which is controllable by an input device and contains an interface for communicating between input/output devices such as laptops or palm top computers or other similar devices. The control board may also receive or supply information remotely via a modem, or other transmission device including landline, cellular, satellite, or other communication mediums.
Another object of the invention is to provide a control board which has a delay that allows continuous use of a refrigeration machine without interruption due to ramping of motors, compressors, ect.
Another object of the invention is to provide a control board which is universal and can therefore be used in various refrigeration machines, thereby realizing cost savings. Input/Output (I/O) ports used in one configuration may be used for a different function in a different configuration or mode merely by changing software functions through various techniques such as calling up an already stored software module or routine or downloading/uploading additional software programs. The software functions may be loaded at the factory and may be changed at a retail store or in the field by a service technician.